socalrx7racer

This is my first post, i just bought an 88" GXL with 188,000 miles for 750 dollars at a local auto auction. over the past three days i have been slowly gathering information as to what i can do to it, and i wanted to share my build with everyone.

As i said i bought my car at an auction for 750 dollars. When i got it it was a little low on coolant and oil, and it had a nasty sounding grind when you tried to shove it into 3rd quickly. so as usual after we got the car back to the shop i work at, we changed the oil, coolant, and changed the tranny fluid. the tranny fluid was especially bad, and low. We decided to use atf and thankgod the grind in 3rd went away(don't ask me how cuz it was pretty bad). As we were inspecting the car i noticed that it was idleing kinda funny and i found that this was because the leading and trailing plug wires were mixed up on the second rotor, i swapped them back. I got it smogged. Thank god it passed(by one part per million).

So after we smogged it, the first thing to go was the 3 cats, we cut them out and cut the flanges off. we found out that the first cat had deteriorated and that the net surrounding it had blown back into the second cat and clogged the exhaust. we used the flanges and welded a straight pipe in the cats place and welded a little bung with a tube to divert some exhaust flow to my 5th and 6th ports, worked like a charm. We kept the stock Y pipe and mufflers and cut the exhaust tips in order to trade them for a 3" set.

After the exhaust was straightened out, we moved to the throttle body. We removed the TB and gave it a good cleaning then we proceeded to remove the first set of butterflies, i sealed up the holes on the side with some plugs and siliconed the holes to prevent leaks. i then ported the trottle body, i made mine as big as possible, worked great. This plus the exhaust made the car feel new.

The next step was to remove the A/C system, mine didn't work and didn't have a belt running the compressor so i chucked it, along with all the tubing and the condenser in front of the radiator, My PS was functional and i wanted to keep it so i did. Also we removed the stock airbox in order to make room for a cone filter, they make the adaptor, i just bought a cheap plastic one from autozone, i had to drill new holes to match the pattern on my AFM.

Next we decided that the ginourmous shifter had to go, we took the shifter out and craked the top piece off of it off. We just stuck it in the vise and gave it a twist and the top came right off with a little persuasion. we stuck a tube style shift *** on the bottom half of the old shifter and put it back together.

So Far thats all i've done, I still have plans to do an electric fan upgrade, a light flywheel, a new clutch, pineapple racing six port sleeves, and an RTek7 Computer. I just wanted to share my build up with everyone and show that if you research correctly and have a plan you can build power very quickly, if anyone has questions, comments, ideas for some other mods, please feel free.(will post some pics soon of all mods)

total build cost so far about $900 including the car.

arghx

iTrader: (3)

Rtek isn't for an N/A. I'm surprised you actually knew as much as you did when you got that car... half the n00bs who come in here don't know anything about 6 ports etc

rotaryracer1

iTrader: (1)

yeah no rtek7 for non turbos.

88mazdarx7turbo

if u dont want a plastic afm adapter just go to ebay and get one of there rinkydinky intake kits..worked well for me and the adapter is stainless steel..bought mine for .01 with a 12.99 dollar shipping..lmao

Tofuball

Awesome. Don't bother "upgrading" to an electric fan unless your current fan clutch is dead, there are no power gains to this mod. My fan clutch was dead, so I'm using the fans from a first gen MR2 (Nice and quiet, fit nicely, cost $20 https://www.rx7club.com/showpost.php...0&postcount=19)

Everyone I talked to who had a lightweight flywheel below 12lbs or so said it was totally unstreetable. I have the SR Motorsports 9.5lb flywheel in my '90 'vert, and I think it's fine, just needs to be slipped a little more. Blipping the throttle takes a bit more skill as the revs change almost instantaniously. First gear and second gear acceleration are noticeably affected.

I'm using the ACT street/strip clutch and pressure plate with it, and I really like it a lot. Easy pedal feel, smooth engagement, and it will lock instantly when I want it to. One of my friends is using a Centerforce clutch (witch he broke in properly) and he likes it a lot too. (Centerforce costs much less then ACT usually)

I'm using the pineapple sleaves, and I like them a lot, just be sure to install them correctly

Don't bother with an Rtek, get a Megasquirt. I've got one and it's the best mod I've done to the car. I'm using it to control my AUX/VDI, and my electric fans too. So you save money on RPM switches (for your AUX/VDI, if you're doing that) and a thermostatic switch for your e-fan (if you're getting one)


Good luck!

socalrx7racer

Well thats why i was gunna get the electric fan cuz i wanted an electric one with a built in thermostat, that way it would get a proper cool down treatment, even when my car is off.....and its funny that you bring up MR2's cuz i happen to have a first gen that i'm swapping a 3.0L into.......but thats cool that you like your six port sleeves ima definately pick some of those up.



P.S...... http://www.pocketlogger.com/index.php?pid=rtek7mod, there's the link to the compatible cars list for the rtek7 computer.......My N/A is one of them. Not out yet but coming soon hopefully.

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

You don't really need a "proper cooldown treatment". Stock fan works fine, unless it is broken. Moving to an electric fan will likely result in overloading the stock alternator, and thus opening that can of worms.

Instead of "chipping" the stock computer, you will get car better results by just ditching that 20 year old wiring and technology, and upgrading to something modern. Haltech, Microtech, Megasquirt, etc. Requires more of a commitment and knowledge in how to tune, but the results will be worlds improved from anything you can do with the stock ECU.

swiftfc

well since you put it that way let me borrow 1k or let him buy the rtek7. if you read his thread name its Buget 88"

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

Megasquirt is nowhere near $1K. Used Haltechs and Microtechs are also very cheap.

socalrx7racer

After driving the car for a week or two i slowly found out that my stock clutch with 188,000 mile on it was just not gunna take the pounding i was giving it. I found a daiken clutch and a lightweight flywheel for 300 bucks.......the flywheel has a new friction surface so its good to go and the clutch has like 500 miles on it. I was told that i would need a counterweight from an automatic version of my car so i think that will be my next puchase. the conterweight is supposed to be like $180, can anyone verify that i'm gunna need this conterweight for my flywheel to fit before i spend the $180?

therotaryrocket

why not get a used counterweight?

socalrx7racer

Several reasons, i work at a shop and get discounts on dealer parts, i'm already saving money on the clutch/flywheel setup, i would know that i'm going to get exactly what i need the first time, i haven't really searched yet except for craigslist but i would think that it would be a hard to find part as far as classified ads go......plus shipping would be expensive because its a pretty heavy item, that is if i couldn't find one in San Diego, plus.....NEW is always better.

Tofuball

Shipping is pretty cheep. I'll mail you my S4 N/A Counterweight (the one you need) for $75 SHIPPED. Not much room for them to go bad, considering they are really nothing more then a hunk of metal.

socalrx7racer

Well what counterweight do you have....like i said above i was told by someone who has installed several lightweight flywheels on s4's that i would need a flywheel from an automatic version of my car.i just wanted to make sure that was true before i spent any money be it on a used or new one.